Why are there so many robots at a show focused on phones? This is the question I asked myself as I roamed the halls of Mobile World Congress, on the lookout for the most exciting technology that will define the next few years.

The first and most obvious answer is that robots draw crowds. A dancing humanoid is an easy way to attract people to your booth. But to see the robots at this year's MWC purely as a publicity stunt would be to ignore the bigger conversation happening around robots and connectivity.

Already in 2026, we've seen major leaps forward in robotics, with companies including Boston Dynamics and phone-maker Honor showing off humanoid robots designed for industry and home environments. But there is yet another level to unlock, and it relies on 6G -- the next-generation network technology set to succeed 5G in 2030 and beyond.

On the surface, 6G and robotics might seem distinctly unrelated -- beyond being technologies of a future that we're not living in quite yet. But in this future, 6G will open new doors for humanoid robots that'll transform them from clunky, standalone mechanical figurines into efficient fleets, where individuals will form part of an all-sensing, always-learning ecosystem.

This will happen first in industry, then in hospitality and care environments, before potentially landing in our homes. It's an exciting prospect, but as the experts I spoke to at MWC last month cautioned, there'll be some big leaps in technology required before they, and we, are ready for that.

Watch this: Honor Unveils Its First Humanoid Robot at MWC

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The power of 6G

To understand how 6G will unlock new possibilities for robots, let's start with the special capabilities the network technology will have. 

The first is that 6G will act as a sensor network, with sensors embedded into both the robots and their environments, Qualcomm's executive vice president of Robotics Nakul Duggal told me. 

This allows the 6G radio to act like radar -- constantly scanning and mapping its surroundings in real time to detect obstacles. Imagine a robot attempting to navigate a crowded environment: The 6G network should quickly and cheaply help create a kind of virtual map for it to do so safely.

Second, there's the pure speed at which 6G will communicate vast reams of data. The 5G networks we currently use aren't necessarily built to handle AI requests, but the 6G networks will be, providing a consistent, low-latency, relatively low-power way to process intelligence and deliver that intelligence to robots, according to Frank Long, associate director of intelligent services at deep tech research firm Cambridge Consultants. 

Private 5G networks combined with edge AI (relying on devices for computing, not just the cloud) can fill the gap for now, but public networks, not so much. By contrast, Long said, "with 6G you can pretty much have that quality of service guarantee."

Cambridge Consultants brought a demo of an autonomous humanoid robot to MWC that can pick up and place down a box based on where it sees you pointing. The gesture recognition, plus the ability to react in real time, while varying its grip to pick up something that might be on an angle, requires an enormous amount of compute power. (The demo was powered by a private 5G network.)

Whether robots are connected to the cloud, or to each other in a peer-to-peer fleet, the network will need to handle their intelligence demands at speed. For robots to be constantly talking to the infrastructure around them -- and to each other -- a strong, reliable uplink will be required, explained Anshuman Saxena, general manager of robotics at chipmaker Qualcomm.

He gave the example of two robots working in a retail environment where one is unloading soda cans from a truck, and another is restocking shelves. They'll need to align on how to read the space around them to complete each task, including understanding how many cans will need placing, and when they'll be ready.

"The only way is this robot, while shelving, goes to the back door entry of the truck that is getting unloaded and sees what is available," said Saxena. "Or the robot that's unloading is communicating the bigger picture to every other robot, so that we have a view of where the things are placed, so that they can plan."

This is what's known as long-horizon planning, where a robot isn't just focusing on the immediate task but thinking about how that task fits into a broader context over a longer timeframe within a dynamic and unstructured environment. In other words, it's performing the kind of ongoing mental multitasking that humans do on a daily basis, reacting at speed to what's going on around us, while also considering what's next. In the Cambridge Consultant demo, the robot was capable of thinking 16 steps ahead.

Meanwhile, lightning-fast 6G will help robots make split-second decisions, based on feedback not just from their own sensor-packed bodies, but from other robots and tech in the environment. "The retail stores have cameras," said Saxena. "It's not a robot, but it can be the eyes of the robot."

Watch this: Atlas Has Left the Lab! In-Person Demo of Boston Dynamics Humanoid

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For robots, every day will be a school day

In your own home, you might have only a single humanoid robot. But that won't be as different from the retail scenario as you may think.

That's because many of the devices you own, including your phone and security cameras, can already communicate with each other, and the robot will be just another one in the mix. Or maybe you'll have one humanoid and a bunch of smaller robots designed for specific tasks.

"There is a fleet aspect in the products that we use," Duggal said. "You don't feel that, but that is exactly how the product is working." 

Keep in mind that your phone is both a physical object itself and all the software and data that are managed elsewhere. The phone also provides feedback to refine that software, as will the 6G-equipped robots.

"So a robot is going to be performing a certain physical task, and while it may perform it in your home, if it's also performing the same task in many other homes, there is this aspect of learning and deployment," Duggal said.

This continuous learning is perhaps one of the biggest challenges that 6G is expected to help solve in robotics. Robots and AI will need massive amounts of real-world data that today's networks can't keep up with, even for mundane tasks.

For example: picking up and serving you a cup of coffee, which involves dexterity and balance, with the added element of heat. A robotic arm might not care about the temperature. "But if it is hot, how would we react?" said Saxena. "We would just quickly leave it, which is a very fast reaction time." 

The speed of 6G networks will be essential. By the time a robot arrives in our homes, we will want to know that it shouldn't hand us a scalding-hot drink and how to protect itself from damage.

Much of this learning might have taken place in hotels or restaurants, where overnight, robots load and unload dishwashers and reset the kitchen. The robot will bring that training into your home, where it'll still need to further learn about your unique layout and routine. This will likely be a time-consuming process.

"It's going to be incredibly challenging," said Long. "Put it this way, members of my immediate family still struggle with opening the baby gate in my stairs, even after extensive training. So a robot, I think, might be a few years away from opening that baby gate."

Readying robots for 6G… and our homes

But 6G is not expected to roll out widely until at least 2030. What are the robots that companies are already building and deploying to do until then?

They're making the leaps and bounds they can with the networks of today. "So you're not waiting for 6G," Saxena said, "but when the connectivity comes along, you are talking about experiences which can be way beyond what robotics can do [today]."

While the confluence of robotics and 6G will indeed unlock some hitherto unseen next-level robotics, there is plenty that robots can learn in the meantime -- particularly when it comes to improving dexterity -- to prime them to take advantage of better connectivity. That's especially true if we're ever to consider inviting humanoids into our homes, an idea that feels, at least for now, like something worth delaying until at least the 6G-enabled 2030s -- if not beyond.